"I take him as his word. I think he's a good man. I know the Donald Trump of today," said Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, in an interview on CNN.

While Falwell personally endorsed Trump in January for president, and has said his support is not reflective of LU, students are now staging an online protest called "Liberty United Against Trump."

"We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell's endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history," student Tyler McNally posted on Twitter on Wednesday night. "Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him."

McNally's tweet had nearly 5,000 shares in 12 hours.

"We are not proclaiming our opposition to Donald Trump out of bitterness, but out of a desire to regain the integrity of our school," McNally's statement said. "While our president Jerry Falwell Jr. tours the country championing the log in his eye, we want the world to know how many students oppose him. We don't want to champion Donald Trump; we want only to be champions for Christ."

On CNN, Falwell said he's "more concerned about America's future than I am Donald Trump's past."

At the Republican National Convention in August, Falwell called Trump "one of the greatest visionaries of our time."

Falwell's renewed support comes on the same day that Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence addressed students.

"I am so impressed with him," Falwell said of Pence at the recent vice presidential debate. "He was so unflappable in the face of all the attacks and he came across as a true statesman."

LU has a long history of inviting candidates of all offices to its convocations and other on-campus events. In this election cycle alone, Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Bernie Sanders have visited campus. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is scheduled to speak there on Monday.

With less than four weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump's campaign is pulling out of Virginia, NBC News reports.

Two GOP staffers confirmed to NBC News that the announcement came during a conference call late Wednesday.

A source close to the decision told NBC News that the Republican candidate for president is shifting his focus to Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio.

Trump's former Virginia state chairman, Corey Stewart, who was recently fired for organizing a protest outside Republican National Committee headquarters, said he was "disgusted" by the move.

"I think it's totally premature for the campaign to be pulling out of Virginia after so much work and all the hundreds ... of hours of volunteer time and thousands and thousands of volunteers," Stewart told NBC News.

Republican Party of Virginia Chairman John Whitbeck denied the campaign was pulling out of Virginia.

"Our commitment to winning Virginia for all of our Republican candidates remains unchanged," said Whitbeck. "The media reports saying the Trump campaign has withdrawn from Virginia come from unnamed sources and a former state co-chair who was terminated by the campaign."

Stewart said Virginia, which had long been considered a battleground state, was winnable if Trump devoted more to advertising.

"The only thing the campaign had to do was spend money on an ad campaign and it would have been competitive," he told NBC News.

10/10/2016

This time it was Trump's Virginia campaign chair Corey Stewart who was shown the door, shortly after posting on Facebook he was headed to "start a rebellion against GOP establishment pukes" and showing up at a rally outside Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington.

With Trump tanking in the polls in Virginia, Stewart may have decided his best bet was to rail against the RNC. Trump Virginia campaign co-chairman told the Virginian-Pilot Stewart was warned repeatedly not to attend the event.

"We are not going to condone publicity stunts, counter to the campaign's mission, in order to enhance somebody's gubernatorial campaign position," Fredericks told the newspaper.

But there was Stewart calling out "the RNC established pukes" at the rally, as published in a video on Twitter by WJLA's Jeff Goldberg.

Now the Trump campaign will ikely rely on Fredericks to plow forward with less than a month to election day. Does this bolster Stewart's chances for the GOP nomination in the governor's race? Time will tell.

09/26/2016

Two different polls released Monday show two different results for Virginia voters.

Quinnipiac University's poll shows that Democrat Hillary Clinton has 44 percent of the support while Republican Donald Trump has 43 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and the Green party's Jill Stein each have less than 10 percent.

09/07/2016

On Wednesday night, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will appear at the first-ever "Commander-in-Chief" forum hosted by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

During the one-hour forum, Clinton and Trump will be on stage back-to-back taking questions on national security, military affairs and veterans issues, according to NBC News. The audience will be mostly veterans and active service members.

Then, less than three weeks later is the first of three presidential debates. Here's a look at the debate schedule:

Monday, Sept. 26, moderated by NBC News' Lester Holt. The first debate, held at Hofstra University, will be divided into six segments of about 15 minutes each to be selected by the moderator and announced at least one week ahead of the debate.

Sunday, Oct. 9, moderated by Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of ABC's "This Week," and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. The debate at Washington University in St. Louis will take on a town hall style, which includes questions from the audience.

Wednesday, Oct. 19, moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. The debate at UNLV will take on the similar style of the first debate.

The one and only vice presidential debate will be held Tuesday, Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville. CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano will be the moderator. The debate will be divided into nine time segments about 10 minutes each.

08/19/2016

A veterans group will host presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in September for a forum to discuss national security, military affairs and veterans issues.

The founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Paul Rieckhoff, says veterans and active duty military members "are ready to hear from the candidates and hold them accountable."

The candidates will appear back to back during the one-hour event, which will be broadcast in primetime on NBC and MSNBC on Wednesday, Sept. 7 in New York.

"On the cusp of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, New York is a fitting stage to give voice to American veterans and service members that are all too often shut out of our political debate," said Rieckhoff.